djchocice

Bit of an update, about 3 and a bit thousand miles in now, still in love with the damn thing. I’m more comfortable and used to being back in a FWD car now and I’m still astounded at how talented the chassis is, that feeling when you pitch it in, cock a rear wheel and the rear rotates like a tarmac rally car is magic. Fuel economy is averaging out at 39mpg, a mix of motorway/B road blasting is pretty good IMO. The dogs just about fit in the boot, that’s 2 labs so practicality is bang on. It also tackled driving to and from Silverstone, a 400 mile round trip perfectly well. The recaros are very supportive but they’re very comfortable.

So far I’m struggling to find fault with it, a bit of extra turbo chatter would be welcome(there isn’t any) but that is a tiny blemish for an otherwise brilliant car.

unclefester

I'm averaging 34 in mine, more B roads than anything else and like you, am completely in love with the handling. It's fun and without having 40+k tied up in it.

djchocice

That’s the best thing about it, it doesn’t cost the earth so there’s no nagging feeling in the back of your mind when you throw it down a B road. In race mode with the stability control backed off it feels a lot like a Clio 200 cup(the good NA one not the eh turbo one) which is about as good as a FWD chassis gets. If it wasn’t on PCP I’d consider the new Mountune 225 kit, but as it invalidates the warranty it seems like a pointless endeavour.

Nick Graves

From Autonews:

DETROIT -- Six years ago, Ford Motor was languishing near the bottom of J.D. Power's annual Initial Quality Study rankings in the United States. The automaker was beset with issues ranging from faulty small-car transmissions to a malfunctioning infotainment system.

A renewed focus on improving internal processes helped fix some of those issues, punctuated by the Ford brand's third-straight top-five finish in this year's study. But now the automaker faces another test: maintaining quality as most of its lineup is either freshened or redesigned.

"It's one the biggest challenges in the industry," Joe Hinrichs, Ford's president of automotive, said of new product launches. "It comes back to the processes, the discipline you have, whether you've done the work with your supply base. ... We feel confident we've put the work in."

Much of that work stems back to 2013, when the Ford brand ranked 27th on the IQS list with 131 problems reported per 100 vehicles. Hinrichs, who had recently taken over as Ford Motor's president of the Americas, instituted a weekly Monday meeting to directly address quality, and reinstituted a half-day quality summit as part of a yearly gathering of the company's leadership team.

"It really comes down to leadership and commitment and process," he said. "We focused on all of those areas."

That focus has continued under Kumar Galhotra, who as president of North America now oversees quality issues for each nameplate during Wednesday meetings in what Ford calls "franchise rooms."

Hinrichs said he, Galhotra and other leaders spend more time looking over initial build prototypes to spot issues earlier in a vehicle's development.



"We committed to a bunch of new processes," Hinrichs said. "That energy's not gone anywhere."

Hinrichs said the team will be tested with upcoming launches, including redesigned Explorer and Escape crossovers, two of the company's highest-volume products. By the end of 2020, Ford says, it will have updated 75 percent of its current lineup and boast the industry's freshest showroom.

Recent product launches give officials confidence the company can maintain quality.

The Ranger, in its first year since returning to the U.S., was the top midsize pickup in the 2019 IQS rankings. The Ford and Lincoln brands combined for 10 models ranked among the top three in their segment.

"It really does come down to how well the entire system is working together and how quickly they can identify and resolve problems," Hinrichs said. "That's the key to keeping launches going well."

So it's not just Ford's junk engines that have changed.

Nick Graves

ETA: Hondura are now below industry average over there - it cuts both ways!

Vortexhunter

I just sold my FK8 and ordered a Fiesta ST-2 with performance pack

Nottm_S2

interesting, all manufacturers seem to have phases.. the last good on for Honda was 20 years ago

Ford had a bad one maybe 5 years ago

Merc had a terrible one a decade ago

Vauxhall have been shit for 50+ years iirc

Nick Graves

Oddly, whilst Opehalls were utter garbage in the 1990s (due to GM beating suppliers to death) the latest ones are supposedly very reliable. Doesn't mean they're any more desirable than a dose of the Poxhalls though.

M-B seem to have got over their electrical Funk even though they seem to be easily the ugliest and worst-driven cars on the road.

Then again, most cars seem to be as interesting as white goods these days. And much of a muchness - even Toyotas aren't quite as boring to drive as they used to be. But not that good...

I had a peer through a window of a new Fiesta as I was walking past - the PQ is really quite surprising compared to B-segments of only a few years ago. Though it was parked next to an E90 estate (E91?) which was longer, but appeared to be more compact. It was really quite a surreal juxtaposition.